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EU and UK start World Trade Organisation split

The EU and the UK Tuesday formally filed to split at the World Trade Organisation ahead of Brexit, reports Reuters. The draft membership agreements seek to remove the UK rights and obligations in merchandise trade from the EU. Another split of services trade will follow. The updated membership "seeks to replicate the concessions and commitments applicable to the UK as part of the EU today," said the UK's WTO ambassador.

This is a political crisis unprecedented in Austria since the war: the resignation of the vice-chancellor, firing of the interior minister, the mass resignation of FPO ministers, a snap election, and a no-confidence vote in the Austrian parliament on Monday.

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A planned high-speed railway connection through the Alps between Italy and France has been highly controversial for decades and is pitting governing Italian coalition parties against each other. But the European Commission insists it must go ahead.